ABSTRACT

With regard to political subjectivities, this chapter argues, refusal-prone materialists played an important part throughout the Fordist period. The subsequent extension of mortgages and private ownership during the post-Fordist period, however, led to an individualization and privatization of housing issues, which attempted to de-politicize the housing question. This depoliticization strategy was at least partially successful in transforming subjectivities towards disengaged, disaffected and disinterested political (non-)actors. Individualized experiences of disengagement, disaffection and disinterest, in contrast, in many cases resulted in frustration, anxiety and depression, prompting some to participate in more active housing movements. By showing that different housing policies are possible, and in securing popular support for their claims, many of these actions have undermined the already tarnished legitimacy of both financialized capitalism and the state. Finally, the post-2008 global and then European crises witnessed a breakdown of housing and mortgage markets in many European countries, coinciding with over-indebtedness, evictions and everyday movements for decent housing.